The invention relates to a method of regulating or controlling a cyclically operating internal combustion engine using a computation model by which the cycle or portions of the cycle of the internal combustion engine is, or are, divided into individual parts and the operating condition within each cycle part is determined using measured values, stored and/or applied data in order to obtain actuating variables for operating said internal combustion engine.
Internal combustion engines have seen many innovations in recent years such as turbochargers, exhaust gas recirculation, multiple injection and/or partially/fully variable valve timing control systems so that there has been a considerable increase in the number of actuating variables available for control. The possibilities resulting from combining the actuating variables are generally very complex and cannot be sufficiently ascertained using conventional global approaches such as mean value models or characteristics models.
The high demands for consumption, emissions and drivability on modern internal combustion engines call for control concepts that cannot be carried out without the current status of the engine being detected. Since many of the variables required for control can only be measured, if at all, using expensive sensors (meaning sensors that are not suited for series production), there is a compelling need for novel computation models.
The computing capacities within the engine control system are strongly limited, which places high demands on the real-time capacity of such computation models.